Mumbai :Reliance Industries Ltd., India’s second-largest company by market value, plans to raise about Rs 400 billion ($5.8 billion) in fresh debt this financial year as it expands its consumer businesses, according to people familiar with the matter.
The billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led company will raise funds through loans and bonds, mostly in the Indian currency, the people said asking not to be named as they are not authorised to speak to the media. Of this, the refining-to-retail conglomerate already has shareholder approval to raise as much as Rs 200 billion through non-convertible debentures.
Reliance’s total debt has tripled in the past five years as it borrowed to fuel more than Rs 3.3 trillion of spending on a new telecom venture and its traditional petrochemicals business. Ambani will invest this year to roll out fiber-based broadband services and on acquisitions, including the purchase of telecom assets from brother Anil’s Reliance Communications Ltd. The company has total borrowings of about Rs 2.2 trillion, more than half of which is due to be repaid by 2022, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Net liabilities will probably increase this year, mostly due to the Reliance Communications transaction, before falling in the financial year ending March 2021 as cash flows improve, said Somshankar Sinha, a Mumbai-based analyst at Jefferies India. “Reliance needs funds to refinance existing long-term debt or replace short-term debt with longer tenors, and to fund its announced acquisitions.”
Reliance has agreed to pay about Rs 173 billion to purchase spectrum, mobile-phone towers and fiber assets from Reliance Communications and another Rs 50 billion for textile-maker Alok Industries, which it won in an auction under India’s bankruptcy rules.
There are investments planned for the fiber-based broadband services, JioGigaFiber, that will launch across 1,100 cities in August under the umbrella of telecom unit Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., the people said. In addition, the conglomerate will spend on acquiring apparel brands and opening new retail outlets, one of the people said.
Issuance Mode
A spokesman for Reliance didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.
Reliance’s better-than-sovereign rating has helped it raise cheaper debt while actively investing cash reserves that reached Rs 781 billion last financial year. Other income accounted for about a fifth of its profit before tax in the 12 months to March 31 — much of it earned by investing the cash. The company has a BBB+ credit score from S&P Global Ratings, two levels higher than the Indian government.
Reliance returned to the local-currency bond market after a more-than-seven-year absence last year, raising Rs 200 billion via six offerings between August and November. The conglomerate priced some notes maturing in three years or slightly more in the range of 6.78 percent to 7.07 percent — lower than the 7.15 percent average yield on top-rated three-year corporate bonds during the same period.
Unit Reliance Jio on Tuesday sought bids to raise Rs 15 billion via three-year notes after tapping the rupee bond market four times already this year.

Indian billionaires’ wealth rose by Rs 2,200 crore a day in 2018: report

New Delhi: Indian billionaires saw their fortunes swell by Rs 2,200 crore a day last year, with the top 1 per cent of the country’s richest getting richer by 39 per cent as against just 3 per cent increase in wealth for the bottom-half of the population, an Oxfam study said .Globally, billionaires’ fortunes rose by 12 per cent or USD 2.5 billion a day in 2018, whereas the poorest half of the world’s population saw their wealth decline by 11 per cent, the international rights group said in its annual study released before the start of the five-day World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in this Swiss ski resort town.

Oxfam further said that 13.6 crore Indians, who make up the poorest 10 per cent of the country, continued to remain in debt since 2004.

Asking the political and business leaders who have gathered in Davos for the annual gathering of the rich and powerful of the world to take urgent steps to tackle the growing rich-poor divide, Oxfam said this increasing inequality is undermining the fight against poverty, damaging economies and fuelling public anger across the globe.

Oxfam International Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, one of the key participants at the WEF summit, said it is “morally outrageous” that a few wealthy individuals are amassing a growing share of India’s wealth, while the poor are struggling to eat their next meal or pay for their child’s medicines.

“If this obscene inequality between the top 1 per cent and the rest of India continues then it will lead to a complete collapse of the social and democratic structure of this country,” she added.

Noting that wealth is becoming even more concentrated, Oxfam said 26 people now own the same as the 3.8 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity, down from 44 people last year.

The world’s richest man Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, saw his fortune increase to USD 112 billion and just 1 per cent of his fortune is equivalent to the whole health budget for Ethiopia, a country of 115 million people.

“India’s top 10 per cent of the population holds 77.4 per cent of the total national wealth. The contrast is even sharper for the top 1 per cent that holds 51.53 per cent of the national wealth. The bottom 60 per cent, the majority of the population, own merely 4.8 per cent of the national wealth. Wealth of top 9 billionaires is equivalent to the wealth of the bottom 50 per cent of the population,” Oxfam said while noting that high level of wealth disparity subverts democracy.

Between 2018 and 2022, India is estimated to produce 70 new dollar millionaires every day, Oxfam said.

“It (the survey) reveals how governments are exacerbating inequality by underfunding public services, such as healthcare and education, on the one hand, while under taxing corporations and the wealthy, and failing to clamp down on tax dodging on the other,” Oxfam India CEO Amitabh Behar said.
The survey also shows that women and girls are hardest hit by rising economic inequality, he added.

“The size of one’s bank account should not dictate how many years your children spend in school, or how long you live — yet this is the reality in too many countries across the globe. While corporations and the super-rich enjoy low tax bills, millions of girls are denied a decent education and women are dying for lack of maternity care,” Byanyima said.

Fugitive Choksi surrenders Indian passport in Antigua to ‘avoid extradition’

Chandigarh:Fugitive tycoon Mehul Choksi has given up his Indian citizenship and surrendered his passport to Antigua, as per media reports.

This move by Choksi’s is being seen as an attempt to avoid his extradition to India. Antigua and India do not have an extradition treaty.

India had earlier handed over a request to Antigua for extradition of Mehul Choksi who is charged in connection with India’s biggest banking fraud, and now living in the Caribbean nation after taking its citizenship.

Official sources said a team comprising officials from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and other agencies was sent to Antigua a couple of days ago to request the Antiguan authorities to extradite Choksi, wanted in India in the US$ 2 billion Punjab National bank scam.

As per reports, Antiguan authorities cleared Choksi’s citizenship in November 2017 after India did not give any adverse report to stall his application for it.

Choksi had fled India on January 4 this year and took oath of allegiance in Antigua on January 15. His citizenship was cleared in November 2017.

Choksi’s application for citizenship in Antigua in May 2017 was accompanied with clearance from the local police as required by norms, Antiguan newspaper the Daily Observer reported, citing a statement from the Citizenship by Investment Unit of Antigua and Barbuda (CIU).

FPI outflow crosses Rs 4,000 crore in Jan so far

New Delhi: Foreign investors have pulled out more than Rs 4,000 crore from the Indian capital markets so far in January, highlighting their cautious stance towards the country.

This comes following a collective net inflow of over Rs 17,000 crore in the capital markets both equity and debt by Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) during November and December.

Prior to that, they had pulled out a massive Rs 38,905 crore in October.

According to data available with the depositories, FPIs withdrew a net amount of Rs 3,987 crore from equities and a net sum of Rs 53 crore from the debt market, taking the total outflow to Rs 4,040 crore during January 1-18.

Market experts believe that FPIs are continuing with their ‘wait and watch’ approach towards India.

Going ahead, the focus would be on the budget, progress on the economic growth front and general elections, they added.

Other factors such as movement in crude prices and currency as well as US-China trade relations will also play a role in FPI flows, they added.

Harsh Jain, COO at Groww, an online MF investment platform, said 2019 is likely to see a lot of volatility because of the rate hikes and dollar instability, but the Indian markets may be able to weather the storm.

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